I can’t believe all the paranoia I saw on Facebook yesterday about Hillary Clinton and the Iowa caucus coin toss used to break ties. “Yes, Hillary Clinton knew in advance exactly how many people would show up in advance at six different precincts and have undercover Sanders workers toss a loaded coin to give her a fraction of a percent of a delegate to the county convention,” I told a few people.
“Well, WHAT ARE THE ODDS that she would win six coin tosses?” they sneered.
“Um, about 1 in 62,” I said. Because it is. Because every time you flip a coin, you have exactly the same odds you did the first time.
Well, guess what? It turns out that Bernie Sanders won six out of seven additional coin flips, and all of a sudden, it’s all perfectly okay. Whew!
Because Clinton rules always apply.
And no, it didn’t affect the totals. Hillary Clinton still won.
Coin tosses or any other game of chance is a ridiculous way to decide who the winner is in a democracy.
They should be outlawed.
Unfortunately there were actual irregularities in the Iowa vote count on the Democratic side.
A little while ago you asked your readership their thoughts about how you should cover the Democratic primaries, and I wasn’t sure what to say. As I recall, you concluded fuckit, I’ll do it my way. Which is always a good answer in my book. Having thought about it, and speaking as a Sanders supporter, I’ve concluded that it would be best for me to not say or do things that would tend to alienate Clinton supporters, since they would be key to a Sanders victory in November, and the ugliness of the 2008 spat between Obama and Clinton still stings Clinton supporters. (For the record: Never an Obama advocate). Conversely, I’d submit that the same sentiments apply to Clinton supporters for a Clinton victory in November; you don’t want today’s opponents feeling like you did in 2008. We could begin every exchange with “What you don’t understand, is that . . . ” and that’s insulting. Both sides understand. They just disagree. I think we should call out our own candidates when circumstances merit. The candidates are going to do what they’re going to do. We should save our ammo for the Republicans.